Dress-form.



PATBNTED JULY 19', 1904.

0. BORGHERT. DRESS FORM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 24, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented July 19, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

DRESS-FORM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 765,455, dated July 19,1904.

Application filed March 24, 1904:.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, OSCAR BOROHERT, a citizen of the United States,residing in West Hoboken, in the county of Hudson and State of NewJersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in DressForms, of which the following is a specification.

Recently the fashionable skirts are made with a straight front andbulging or flaring backs and sides. Consequently the old style ofdress-forms are not well adapted for supporting the newer styles ofskirts made with straight fronts and flaring backs and sides, so thatwhen these newer forms of skirts are placed on the old style ofdress-form the skirts lose their required shape.

The object of this invention is to construct an improved dress-form onwhich skirts with straight fronts and bulging sides and backs may besupported so as to keep their proper shape; and for this purpose theinvention consists of an adjustable dress-form, the springwire ribsforming theback part of said dressform being supported at their upperportion by means of radial non-extensible braces and 1 having the upperpart of the ribs forming the sides and front of said dress-formsupported by slidable braces which readily adjust themselves to thestraight shape of the front, while the lower sliding braces orstretchers are made radially or otherwise adjustable in the same manneras the corresponding braces or stretcher-rods heretofore in use fordressforms.

The invention consists, further, of an adjustable dress-form composed ofan upright sup porting-standard, two groups of braces supported byblocks or sleeves sliding on said standard, the side and rear braces ofsaid groups being single non-extensible pieces, while the front groupsare formed of two slidable parts, one part being guided on the bodyportion of the other, so that the slidable braces adapt themselves tothe form of the skirts having straight fronts and bulging sides andbacks and permit the form to hold the skirt in a more satisfactorymanner than the dressforms heretofore in use.

.In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a perspective View ofmy improved Serial No. 199,887. (No model.)

dress-form. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through Fig. 1,drawn on a larger scale and showing clearly the arrangement of the upperand lower braces of the dress-form and connections therewith; and Fig. 3is a plan view of Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Referring to the drawings, a represents an upright standard,which issupported by a pedestal Z) of the usual construction.

0 0 are two groups of braces which extend from clips Z on the ribs Z6 isto the sliding blocks or sleeves (Z d, that are supported on thestandard a and held in place by means of thumb-screws e e. The positionof the sliding blocks d d on the standard is varied, so

as to conform to the size of the skirt to be supported on thedress-form.

f is a group of single upper braces or stretchers which extend from theclips Z at the upper ends of the ribs to the sleeve d that is clampedtothe standard a by the thumbscrew 6 while f is a group of stretcherswhich extend from clips Z of the ribs 70 to a block or sleeve 0Z on thestandard a, said sleeve 0Z being clamped thereto by a thumb-screw 6 Theribs k are made of spring metal, preferably steel wire or roundspring-steel, as shown in the drawings, and more particularly in Fig. 1,each rib extending from the bottom of the form to the top thereof anddown again, the upper ends Z being connected by clips Z, which areprovided with loops Z, through which a non-elastic encircling band ortape m is passed. Two of these bands or tapes are preferably arranged onthe dressform, one being located on the loops of the upper clips Z,while the other band passes through loops of clips Z below the upperclips Z. The adjacent intermediate portions of the ribs and the loweradjacent ends of the same, respectively, are connected by clips Z and Zas shown clearly in Fig. 1. The lower braces or stretchers f f areconnected with the inwardly-projecting flange n of the clips Z and madein such a manner as to permit of adjustment in radial direction, theadjustment of said lower braces being controlled by means of slidingfriction-sleeves s, so that the shape and size of the lower part of thedressform can be varied to the desired size and style of skirt. Thenon-elastic tapes or hands m, which are passed through the upper andintermediate loops of the connecting-clips Z Z, are each provided with ascale divided into inches for the purpose of measuring and controllingthe adjustment of the upper and middle portions of the dress-form, sothat it conforms to the required size of skirt.

The new features of my improved dressform consist in making the rear andside braces of the groups 0 c of one single wire radially non-extensibleand having each rod of such length and so connected at its outer endwith the clips attached to the ribs and at its inner end connected withthe proper sliding block on the standard ct, cooperating with saidclips, that when the sliding blocks are moved upwardly upon the saidstandard a the rear and side braces or stretcher-rods connectedtherewith are moved with them in an upward and outward direction,causing the ribs is, attached to the said rear andside braces, to bemoved or pressed outwardly, giving to the back and sides of thedress-form the bulging or flaring shape desired, which bulging orflaring shape can be controlled by adjusting the sliding blocksconnecting with the rear and side braces upwardly or downwardly as thebulging effect is required to be either greater or less.

The front braces of the groups 00' are constructed of two. slidableportions, which overlap and engage each other by eyes at their ends, soas to permit the portions of the braces to slide on each other for thepurpose of adjustment, as shown in Fig. 2. This construction of theslidable front braces 0 0 permits their shortening or lengthening, sothat they may be adapted to cooperate with the sliding blocks and frontribs, to both of which they are connected in such amanner as to impartto the back and side ribs a flaring or bulging shape by the adjustmentor moving of the sliding blocks on the standard, while the said frontribs take a position relatively to the said back and side ribs thatgives the dress-form a flattened or straight shape in the front toconform to the present prevailing style of straight-front skirts asdistinguished from the form of the curved or bulging side and rearportions of the skirt. This straight shape of the front of thedress-form may be slightly altered by moving the slidingadjusting-blocks cZcZ, to which the upper and lower series of the saidfront braces are respectively attached, toward each other on thesupporting-standard until the inner ends of the front braces, which areconnected at their outer ends to the front ribs of the frame, abutagainst the crowns of the sliding blocks d d and producean outwardpressure on the front ribs, which results in giving the said ribs aslightly outward bulging or curving shape at their intermediateportions, but without changing the general flattened character or formof the straight-front skirt supported on the improved dress-form.

The lower series of sliding braces or stretcher-rods f are similar tothe sliding front braces c c and are inwardly and outwardly adjustableand arranged to give the desired position and inclination to the braces.The upper slidable front braces, the upper side and rear non-extensiblestretcher-rods, and the lower adjustable stretcher-rods are made of suchlengths that when the dressform is distended into proper shape and sizeto conform to the shape of the skirt the distance of each rib from thesupporting-standard a and the sliding blocks thereon and the lengths ofthe braces or stretcher-rods connecting said ribs with said slidingblocks or sleeves is of less length at the front portion of thedress-form and increases gradually at the sides and rear of thedress-form, the greatest distance from the central back rib to thestandard being at the rear portion and the least distance from thecentral front rib to the said standard, the corresponding ribs arrangedon each side of the form between the central front rib and the centralback rib being equal distances from the standard a, but increasing asthe ribs are taken in order from the front to the back of thedress-form. This feature of my improved dress-form is clearly showninFig. 3 of the drawings.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent In a dress-form, the combination with a standard and aplurality of ribs surrounding the same, of a group of'non-extensiblebraces for supporting said ribs at their upper or waist portions, twogroups of braces, an upper and lower group, for supportingthe middleportions of said ribs, each of said groups consisting of extensiblefront and side braces and non-extensible rear braces,said front and sidebraces increasing in length from the front toward the rear braces,stretcher-rods for supporting the lower ends of said ribs, and means forlocking the upper braces, the intermediate braces, and thestretcher-rods, to said standard.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed myname in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

- OSCAR BORCHERT. -Witnesses: I HENRY J. SUHRBIER,

J. HENRY GLEssER.

